Your Thoughts Before Mine

 

Report cards went home today. That is a big day in normal circumstances, but even more so today as it a completely reformatted report card on its way to being standards based.

This school was previously giving letter grades from grade 1 up. Yes, letter grades in elementary.

Some rights reserved by AJC1

We have know that the move away from letter grades was coming since early in the fall. I have been working with my kiddos to help them get their heads around this change. "It is about if you understand the concepts" I hear myself repeating.

This report card has a 3, 2, 1 scale. A '3' means you completely understand a concept / are meeting grade level expectations, or in student talk, "You nailed it!" A '2' means you are approaching grade level expectations, or in student talk, "You mostly get it." A '1' in any translation means you need bunches of help.

There are also 'learner attributes' with similar delineation, but using symbols instead of numbers - critical thinking being my favorite.

So, before I handed them their much anticipated sealed envelope I went through the new report card with them, showing a template on the projector and explaining each section. I then shared a Doc with them and asked them to make make a copy and share it with me. This Doc was an abbreviated version of the report card and their instructions were to pretend they were the teacher and give the marks they believe they have earned AND explain why they should get each mark.

I believe that both the educational piece (learning the new report card) and the reflection piece (knowing yourself as a learner) had much value. I haven't had any parent emails yet tonight, so that is a good sign. Conferences are on Friday and you better believe that I am leading with the student reflection piece!